Newly released emails show that a Clinton Foundation adviser asked one of Hillary Clinton’s top State Department aides to provide “‘air’ support” for a Clinton Foundation donor who sought to set up a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Panama to help with a legal dispute.
Emails released on Thursday by Judicial Watch show that Clinton Foundation adviser Doug Band forwarded an email to Hillary Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin from Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, a conservative online publication.
Despite his ideological bent, Ruddy has been a supporter of the Clintons. Through Newsmax, he has donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, the organization’s website shows.
In the Aug. 17, 2009 email, Ruddy asked Band to put Otto Reich, a former Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administration official, in touch with Barbara Stephenson, who then served as U.S. ambassador to Panama. […]
To help settle the affair, Ruddy leaned on his Clinton Foundation connections to ask the State Department to intervene. […]
Abedin moved to help Band fulfill Ruddy’s request, noting that the staffers who would normally handle such matters were out on vacation but that she would have a “junior”-level official help out.
